In the world of Harlem, New York, the cruelties of the world become incandescently prominent. James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" addresses the unsettling power of grief in a world where someone's coping skills dictate the course of their life. The story describes a person's options to ignore the pain, create a reason for the pain, or accept the pain and live within it. Baldwin explains the theme of pervasive pain and parents' attempts to protect their children from it through the characters. Their reaction to pain builds a motive for pain management. To allow children to remain innocent of the world's harsh treatments for as long as possible, adults do not talk about these realities in the presence of children. Baldwin constructs a scenario in which adults try to protect a child's dark wisdom. “The darkness outside is what the old people talk about. That's where they come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they will never talk again because if he knows too much about what happened to him, he will know too much, too soon, about what will happen to him” (34). While it is justifiable to protect children from the cruelties of the world by causing them to ignore reality, adults are doing a disservice to children who are unaware of the challenges and trials that await them. Even if adults do not draw the child's attention to the challenges and trials that come his way, it does not mean that cruelties can be ignored. Just not talking about something doesn't make it go away. As Baldwin works out the scenario, he foreshadows the inevitable: all good things sooner or later meet their end. In the case of the child, his first years of life may be removed from the malice of reality, but eventually… halfway through the paper… a valid point is proven, but it is his older brother who represents the wise intuition. Through his different approach to suffering, the older brother, in a certain sense, escapes further suffering because he does not allow himself to believe that his pain is unique. Like when his daughter Gracie dies, “[her] problems made [Sonny's] problems real” (42). Everyone is a victim of pain; it's part of life. Baldwin sends a message to readers about pain: no one is exempt from its presence. His story conveys that a person's management of that pain influences their existence. The way they handle it can make their life more tiring, more painful, or the way they deal with the situation can make their life not necessarily comfortable, but livable; enduring pain is a pact with life. Work cited Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The art of storytelling. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.